My Meetup was published and I now have 7 members, none of whom appear to be moon-bats.  I have 5 RSVPs to our first meeting that I scheduled for a Saturday in December.

As I had hoped, instead of adding more pressure, the project is energizing me!  I surveyed my members for topics of interest.  I also asked them if they would feel comfortable leading any discussions.  One volunteered to demonstrate canning, but otherwise they all said "no".  This made me happy because now I won't feel like I'm coming across as a know-it-all.  The members are actually coming to hear what I have to say, and I'm not nervous at all.

Several of them said they were concerned about an extended power outage in winter.  This shows they are smart and realistic.  Our babysitter in McMinnville reports that she had a winter without power for 2 weeks, sometime in the last decade.  Mike and I were here for the "Arctic Blast" of 2008.  So I think everyone knows this is not a "crazy" scenario.

After a completely off-the-cuff discussion with my sister about preparedness areas that I'm qualified to address related to power outages, she encouraged me not to delay, but to make this the theme of our first meeting.  Initially I had meant for our first meeting to be introductions only, but after Shannon's feedback I'm launching the group with a bang.

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My cousin came to visit, and brought her son who is also some sort of cousin to me.  I always forget how that works.  You'd think being the genealogist that I am, that I would know this better.  Whatever.  She told him I was Auntie Heather, so that's good enough for me.

In other genealogy news, my 9th cousin contacted me after finding one of my personal websites, and he seems to have a lot of information to share that I did not have before.  I haven't been able to dig in yet, but I'm hoping he'll be able to help me answer some longtime questions I've had about my ancestors who were mariners in the 17-1800s.

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The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are approaching, and Mike and I have been discussing how we want to celebrate this year.  For the most part it's "not at all".  Well, a slight exaggeration, as we'll probably have a turkey and something, but really, our kids are just still too little and would effectively ruin a traditional celebration.  They ruin my dinner every night of the week anyway, so it would be ridiculous to put any effort into a Thanksgiving feast that I won't even get to enjoy.  In case you think I'm exaggerating, I've actually been accused of being "too" skinny lately.  This is because Mae literally takes food out of my mouth and Libby has a jealous fit when I sit down in front of a plate.  (She's jealous that I'm spending time with the plate, and not her.)

Mae's waking up, so I'm signing off now.  No photos today because I'm using Mike's computer instead of my own.